Life History Traits and Rearing Techniques for Fall Webworms (Hyphantria cuneaDrury) in Colorado

Abstract

The fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea Drury) is a moth species native to North America and an invasive pest in Europe and Asia. Hyphantria cunea larvae are noted generalists, and have been recorded feeding on dozens of plant families worldwide. There appear to be at least two forms of H. cunea that are distinguished by the larval head capsule color: black or red. Most previous accounts of H. cunea in the literature focus on the black-headed form. The three goals of the research we present here are to 1) detail successful rearing techniques for the red-headed form of H. cunea, 2) describe life history traits of red-headed H. cunea in Colorado and 3) test whether female pupal mass predicts potential fecundity for H. cunea as well as other lepidopteran species. Our data are compiled from two years of rearing experiments in the lab. In addition, we compare measures of life history traits from our research with those of other collections of H. cunea from Asia, Europe, Canada, and other regions of the United States to enable a better comparison between the black-headed and red-headed forms of H. cunea.